Where Mauna Loa’s lava is coming from – and why Hawaii’s volcanoes are different from most

Hawaii’s Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano, began sending up fountains of glowing rock and spilling lava from fissures as its first eruption in nearly four decades began on Nov. 27, 2022.

Where does that molten rock come from?

We asked Gabi Laske, a geophysicist at the University of California-San Diego who led one of the first projects to map the deep plumbing that feeds the Hawaiian Islands’ volcanoes, to explain.

Where Mauna Loa’s lava is coming from – and why Hawaii’s volcanoes are different from most